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The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 265 No 7128 p935
December 23/30, 2000 Christmas miscellany

Martindale Christmas quiz

How well do you know the contents of Martindale? By testing your knowledge in this Christmas theme quiz, compiled by Martindale staff, you have the chance to win books from the Pharmaceutical Press. Answers to all the questions below may be found by consulting Martindale. Winning entries will be drawn on January 12 and the first correct entry will win a £100

Rules
The competition is only open to members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Employees of the Society and their families are not eligible to enter.
Entries should be marked “Quiz” and should include your name, address and daytime telephone number. They should be sent to The Editor, Martindale, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN. Alternatively you may e-mail your entries to martquiz@rpsgb.org.uk Please do not send any other material with your entry.
Names of competition winners and the correct answers will be published in The Journal.
The editor’s decision is final.

  1. So this is a Christmas quiz. Which blood-clotting factor is known as Christmas factor?
  2. Eating and drinking well is often considered one of the pleasures of Christmas, but doing so to excess may well leave you with dyspepsia. What heavy metal may come to the rescue?
  3. On the other hand, "cold turkey"is something that we hope you will not be suffering from. Name two a2-adrenoceptor agonists used in its management.
  4. The first Christmas gift might possibly be found in your mouth. What is it and why is this so?
  5. Wintry weather is often missing at Christmas, but which drug is also known as "snow"?
  6. A choir of angels singing to the shepherds in the snow-dusted fields is found in many a Christmas carol, but name two drugs that share the slang name "angel dust".
  7. Another angel that you might come across in the fields is the destroying angel. What is it?
  8. One of the three wise men must have been familiar with Commiphora molmol. Why?
  9. The proof of the Christmas pudding may be in the eating, but how much alcohol does proof spirit contain?
  10. Your Christmas pudding might also contain E150. What is it better known as?
  11. There are about 1,300 species of this, some of which have been used to lower blood pressure although its traditional Christmas use might leave you pleasantly flushed! What is it?
  12. A Christmas tree is the traditional gift to Britain from the people of the country whose flag is shown below but what strange reported effect links tacrolimus with these people?
  13. Sometimes of course you don’t want anything more at Christmas than a cup of tea, a substance for which various health claims have been made. How could what sounds like a nice cuppa and the Italian capital produce asthma relief in Japan?
  14. Mind you, you wouldn’t want to overdo access to the teapot. What result has been reported in an elderly patient who drank 14 litres of tea daily? (And no, we don’t mean semi-permanent residence in the smallest room.)
  15. Continuing that rather — er — unfortunate theme, another food associated with the Christmas meal has been reported to have surprising benefits in urinary-tract infection. What is it?
  16. Oranges were a favourite stocking filler in the past. What surprising orange might occur from incautious mixture of liquid carbamazepine and chlorpromazine?
  17. Christmas food tends to involve a lot of sweet things. What sweetener could be used to terminate hiccups?
  18. Unfortunately Christmas is also a time when a lot of us suffer from coughs and colds. Take 50 from the country whose capital is Dakar to get this root used in expectorant preparations.
  19. Of course Christmas is a religious festival, and the clergy have a lot to do. Which parasitic disease might a Jesuit's bark be able to cure?
  20. Why is miracle fruit so named?